Ivanhoe Mines already-stellar Kamoa copper project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is getting better with every hole drilled at the nearby Kakula prospect.

Already one of the highest-grade undeveloped copper projects on the globe, the recent discovery of Kakula has the potential to transform Ivanhoe’s 47%-owned project.

The latest drill programme has returned hits such as 7.36m (true width) grading 8.11% Cu from 382m depth, 6.78m at 7.52% Cu from 420m depth and 10.31m averaging 6.92% Cu from 349.5m depth.

These holes are not a fluke, either. They come on top of previous assays such as 8.86m grading 6.56% Cu from 323m depth and 10.23m averaging 6.18% Cu from 400m depth.

The latest assays, at a 2.5% Cu cutoff, far exceed the existing reserve grade at Kamoa (3.86% Cu) and show the resource could get bigger than the 23.9 million tonnes of copper already delineated.

This gives shareholders (including Zijin Mining, which has a 49.5% stake) hope that the economics and production numbers from the 2016 prefeasibility study – 100,000 tonnes per annum of production at a total cash cost of US$1.48 per pound for a $986 million post-tax net present value (8% discount, $3/Ib copper price) – could improve.

Ivanhoe is busy starting development around the initial Kamoa mining area, but investors will eagerly be awaiting a maiden resource estimate for Kakula, due later this quarter, for the true extent of the project’s potential.


Created from www.mining-journal.com